sábado, 25 de agosto de 2007

APC: Out of curiosity, do you have anything to say to hardware manufacturers who refuse to release datasheets or specifications about the functioning of their hardware so it could operate with the Linux kernel?

martes, 21 de agosto de 2007

Most Laws Attempting Limits of Violent Videogames Fail

"Good news for common sense: the New York Times examines the track record of state laws attempting to put additional limits on violent videogames, and finds that the courts have struck almost all of them down as unconstitutional. Especially notable is this gem of a quote, from Judge Richard A. Posner: 'Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low ... It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware. To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it.'"

and you missed the title of this thread "Think of the Children". Are we going to argue that pornography is not damaging to a young psyche? Children don't have sex, they don't need to have sex, and are not interested in intercourse (but are interested in gender and sexuality).

I think it's easy for a child to understand that pulling people out of a car and blowing their brains out in Grand Theft Auto means your character is the "Bad Guy". It's quite different for a child to understand why two men and a golden retriever are having sex, even if a child understands what sex is.

I think every video game, comic book, tv show, movie, etc that a kid would be interested in (ie, not bored to tears) has a pretty stark contrast between Good Guys and Bad Guys. Even if it's something like GTA where you have Bads Guys and Worse Guys. Comics, WWF, etc have been going in the direction of dark heros and even bad-is-good.

I always liked episodes of GI Joe where the Joes had to cooperate with Cobra to achieve some common goal. You still knew Cobra was the Bad Guys, but you respected them more for not being mindless in their badness. Although sometimes episodes like that leaves a young child with a lot of questions, but I would assume that he's going to ask someone older about it eventually. (I'm off on a tangent now)

The roles of sex between lovers is perhaps out of the grasp of the younger audience, and the role between carnality and perversion is way beyond the understanding of all but the most mature audience. If children watch porn, especially the hardcore stuff, they are not going to be able to make sense of it. They will eventually try to fit it into their world view, and likely get the facts wrong. I can only hope they would not end up too warped as they got older. Violence on the other hand seems to make sense to kids, because they see and practice violence often in their daily lives. And are taught lessons about violence by their parents regularly (don't hit, don't throw things, etc).

There are a very limited amount of things that a child really needs to know about sexuality. either taught or learned on their own through experience or observation. Mostly it has to do with roles and rules in society. Don't show your privates to other kids. don't touch others. tell an adult if someone touches you. boys are different than girls. and even things such as boys and girls become men and women, and men and women can make babies. (being vague about the mechanism is fine). Even roles between couples seems to make sense to kids. like boyfriend/girlfriend. even if they don't understand the purpose or what goes on between them or what "love(passionate)" is all about.

I think the fear is that children almost always understand that games like GTA are fantasy, that it is not "normal" to go around murdering people. I believe this is because children have experience with violence, and understand what a normal amount of violence is. If a kid is playing a game, playing "make believe", seeing a cartoon/film or hearing/reading a story, a child is going to have to decide if it is "pretend" or if it is real. Harry Potter is live action (and i think zapping people with spells is violent), with convincing special effects, but all but a few children realize that it is a work of fiction. remember, there is a dramatic difference between a child who prefers to act out "make believe" fantasies, and a child that does not know the difference between fantasy and reality.

But a kid doesn't not have experience with intercourse, so pornography, which is almost 100% fantasy. may not be recognized as fantasy by a child. A child might not realize that two guys banging a woman with giant breast implants is not "normal". And that it represents a mature fantasy, and that the entire image/film is staged precisely to depict a fantasy for the viewer.

There is nothing wrong with sex, intercourse, and sexuality. But I think many of us question the ability of a child to distinguish between sexual fantasy and sexual reality. Therefor I disagree that it is hypocrisy to restrict the flow of adult sexual content, while allowing children to be exposed to violence. (of course there are limits to this too, I don't think I would show a 1st grader Hellraiser or anything like that)

miércoles, 15 de agosto de 2007

A lot of people say, "I'm ok with it if it reduces the price of the game," but I haven't heard a single game company offering this as a motivation. No one has said, "Our development costs are rising, so to offset the load of this on the consumer, we're going to start offering a version of the game with advertising that costs less." No, all of the game developer community discussion has been surrounding whether or not gamers would accept the advertising. This is only a supplemental revenue stream which will degrade gaming experience without offering anything back to us, the gamers.

I think they under-estimate the willpower of the up and coming generation to avoid advertising though. It won't be long at all until someone has an adblock-style product for gaming. Perhaps it locks games processes down to certain ports (only the ports necessary for online play). If they deliver advertising over those ports, then expect it to modify the process memory at run-time to purge advertisements. Now that is a service I would pay for.

Wikipedia has now supplanted the Encyclopedia Britannica in many places as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom. Although it has many omissions, contains much that is apocryphal, or at least widely inaccurate, it scores over the older more pedestrian work in two important ways.

It is slightly cheaper

It has the words "You can copy and edit me for free" inscribed in large friendly letters in the license.

edit: otra forma de la misma idea:

In many of the more relaxed corners of the Outer Eastern Rim of the Internet, Wikipedia has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Britannica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects.

First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words "anyone can edit" inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.

viernes, 3 de agosto de 2007

Second Life & WoW Terrorist Training Camps?

Tech.Luver writes

"theinquirer reports that 'Aussie Security experts claim that Second Life and online games such as World of Warcraft are being used to train terrorists. Apparently there are three jihadi terrorists registered and two elite jihadist terrorist groups in Second Life and they use the site for recruiting and training. This is on top of the Second Life Liberation Army.""